How to Track Items and Sellers on eBay

If you want to keep track of eBay auction items, look no further than the My eBay All Lists. You access All Lists by clicking the My eBay link at the top of the page and choosing All Lists from the drop-down menu.

This feature gives you some links for checking out what's hot and what's not. The Lists pages help you track trends and find some bargains to resell at eBay.

Using the Watch list

Have you ever seen an item that made you think, "I don't want to bid on this or buy just now, but I'd like to buy it if it's a bargain"? If you click the Add to Watch List link at the top of the item page, it will be added to your Watch List. (eBay allows you to monitor 200 at a time.)

Clicking the Watch List link from the My eBay Lists box will bring you to the Watch List page, one of the most powerful features of the My eBay area. This page lists each item with a countdown (time-left) timer, so you know exactly when the auction or listing will close. (When an auction on your Watch List gets close to ending, you can swoop in for the kill.)

Also a handy marketing tool, the Watch List page allows you to store listings posted by your competition. That way you can monitor the status of items similar to ones you plan to sell later; seeing whether those items are selling high or low can help you to decide whether it's a good time to sell.

Saving searches

A tool that comes in handy for sellers as well as buyers is Saved Searches. You can list as many favorite searches as you want; when you want to check one out, simply click the name of the search on the page.

You can view, change, and delete saved searches, or indicate that you'd like to receive e-mail notification when a new item is listed. To add an item to the list, run a search from any search bar on any eBay page and click the Save Search link that appears at the top of the search-results page. The next time you reload your My eBay Saved Searches page, your new favorite will be listed.

Keeping track of Saved Searches is valuable when you're looking for particular items to resell and want to find them at bargain-basement prices. Be sure to take advantage of asterisks (wildcard characters) and alternate spellings so you can catch items with misspellings in the title. These are your best bets for low prices.

If you choose to receive an e-mail when your search locates a new listing, you can request that you receive notification. You're allowed to receive new listing e-mails on any or all of your searches. Just click the drop-down menu and click the Sign Up For Emails link from the drop-down menu next to the saved search. eBay sends its robot to check listings each night, so you'll get notification of a new listing the next morning.

Saving sellers

One way to use Saved Sellers is to keep a list of people who sell items similar to yours. You can check up on them and see what they're selling, when they're selling it, and for how much.

Saved Sellers is also handy when your competition is selling an item that you plan to sell, but at a deeply discounted price. When that happens, don't offer yours until they sell out of the item, at which time the price will most likely go back up.

To add a seller to your Saved Sellers list, click the Save This Seller link in the seller's info box (in the upper-right corner of the item page).